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Monday Genea-pourri, Week of Apr 20-26, 2020

Genealogists are great at documenting our ancestors’ lives but not so great documenting our own. I’ll write about what I’ve been doing the past week. This idea came from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing, who started this meme.

I have completed six weeks of “lock down” due to Covid-19. I left the house only to do phenology at the meadow, walks to the mailbox, and a trip to a friend’s driveway to pick up some plants.

Genealogy
Blog Writing:
My blog post from last week was spotlighted by Amy Crow Johnson in this week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks email. That’s pretty exciting and certainly brought some traffic to my blog.

Webinars/Study Groups Attended:   
Many more online meetings again this week:
  • Monday, the CCCGS Monday Morning Group met and had one time 12 people. We had three out-of-state people join us this week. I have gotten some payments to purchase a subscription to Zoom, and now have a month-to-month plan. Later I met with my friend, Jacqueline, and we spoke for an hour talking about our military research we are doing.
  • Tuesday, I spoke with military researcher, KB, and she gave some great tips on finding out more about the Army Air Force base in England where my father-in-law was stationed. I have lots more resources to check out.
  • Wednesday, I arranged for our Retreat Genie-buddies group to meet on Zoom and it was so nice to talk to catch up with each other.
  • I forgot to attend the Thursday group, but did attend the Friday group and we discussed some DNA problems that two members shared with us.
  • Saturday, I attended the Military Research Education group meeting and lots of people had questions which other members helped answer. It was very informative, and I always take notes.

Client Work/Presentations: None.

Volunteer Work: None.

Own Work:
This week I scanned photos, documents, and photos found in binders about my father-in-law, George’s time in the service during World War II. The envelopes give clues to his address and to his units he was in. I experimented whether a piece of white or black paper was best behind the letters, which were written on very thin tissue-like paper. If written on one side only, the white paper worked best. However, if he wrote on both sides, then the black paper helped prevent the words on the opposite side from showing through. I also had to process the images, removing the yellow cast my scanner puts on, and then renaming and filing the image. Between the letters and his diary, I’ll have a little idea of what his life was like (outside of his actual work, which he rarely spoke of) in England and Germany.

Other:
Got some walks to the mailbox in with my husband. I attended my three online German classes and my ukulele lesson. I met Shirley at the Meadow to do the phenology study (we wore our masks and stayed 10 feet apart). The meadow was birdy—quail, woodpeckers, wrens, and hawks, but I took no photos. I also pulled weeds in our yard. Hope to get some of the veggie plants I got from Margo planted soon.

Our Friends of Alhambra Creek met on Zoom and we had a quick meeting. It was great seeing everyone! It is so unfortunate that most of the things we had planned to do this Spring and Summer have been cancelled or postponed to Fall.

Photos from walks:







Copyright © 2020 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

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